The story

Marching in dramatic silence, many with tape over their mouths, hundreds of thousands of Iranians kept alive public support for opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi Wednesday even as the government stepped up efforts to thwart daily protests calling for a new presidential election.

Large crowds gathered in Haft-e-Tir Square in central Tehran Wednesday evening for a fifth day of protests, according to witnesses. The demonstrators are demanding that officials throw out the results of the balloting Friday that kept hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power.

More protests are expected Thursday after Moussavi, in a message on his Web site, called for an afternoon "ceremony of mourning," which he planned to attend. Read full article »

CNN's Samson Desta and Reza Sayah in Tehran, and Mitra Mobasherat and Saeed Ahmed in Atlanta, contributed to this report.